One of the main reasons that I don't buy the idea that Jenova and Omega are similar is that Jenova has always been described as a living being with cells, DNA, the ability to behave like a virus, etc. But the Lifestream, and specifically mako have always been described as a type of energy, if one that has liquid/gaseous properties and that can crystallize. Given that the WEAPONs are made out of pure mako, they're not really "living" beings. They're pretty much really solid energy constructs.
Wellll, this is where it gets complicated.
As far as the whole cycle of couls mythos is concerned, spirit energy seems to be the building block of everything. Even physical matter (think about the weapons Loz, Yazoo and Kadaj have). At least one Ultimania refers to the Weapons as "biological weaponry" -- i.e., alive. Think about the antibodies Vincent destroys inside Omega.
Along similar lines, the inhabitants of Dream Zanarkand in FFX -- despite being entirely composed of pyreflies like aeons -- are said in X-2's Ultimania Omega to have genes/DNA in a section addressing what connection there may be between Shuyin and Tidus. It mentions this because it's impying that Tidus was a descendant of Dream Zanarkand's version of Shuyin, and it explains their differences via the intermixing of genes over the preceding one thousand years.
The Ultimanias for X further detail that pyreflies permeate everything in Spira, including people's bodies. They explain that "Sin's Toxin" is actually an effect of Sin constantly sucking up ambient pyreflies -- even the ones in people. Those who come near Sin get lightheaded and sometimes get amnesia because Sin is tugging on their spirit energy, and may even pluck some of it away.
Sin essentially eats their memories/spirit energy.
This is also why Kinoc's body and those Guado in Bevelle explode into a burst of pyreflies when Seymour transforms into Seymour Natus and uses them for energy. Guado, who live closer to the planet's core than other races in Spira, are particularly keen to manipulating pyreflies (they're like Cetra), and Seymour was the greatest of them. He could literally pull a person's body apart into its component pyreflies.
Sin has a lot in common with both Jenova and the Weapons. Like the Weapons, it's a giant monster made up of spirit energy, yet still an organic creature. And like Jenova, it's got a lot of tentacles going on and it has a Reunion instinct with regard to its Sinspawn.
Really, the more I delve into it all, the more I'm convinced that were we to ever get an official explanation for Jenova, it would be that she was an Omega-like creature.
I don't want that to happen, mind you. But it makes far, far too much sense.
Obsidian said:
What also has to do with this is that Jenova, for all that she is made out of biological material, is a very passive being. She doesn't really do anything until an opportunity comes to her, and even then, the only instinct she seems to follow is trying to survive and feed. WEAPONs (most of them) on the other hand are not passive once the Planet wakes them up.
I would say it's more that these creatures follow whatever their programming is. Sin was programmed to keep eating pyreflies to keep itself going, to attack advanced technology, to wreck ships and to attack large settlements -- a directive aimed at keeping Dream Zanarkand's existence a secret and the place itself safe.
It was also programmed not to go too close to Dream Zanarkand so that its other programming wouldn't kick in and cause it to attack that city, like it does at the beginning of FFX. It was only supposed to go close enough to eat up some pyreflies.
The reason it attacked the city in FFX's opening is because Jecht exerted his willpower enough to override the programming about not getting close to the city. He was trying to set events in motion that would end with Tidus killing him.
You know the programming of FFVII's Weapons, so I won't go into that, but the point is: Who's to say Jenova didn't have a similar directive?
on the Spirits Within Jenova theory.
